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Monthly Archives: April 2007

A few months have passed since the passing of old John Young and not much has changed.

Young's is now brewed by Wells in Bedford.

No longer in Wandsworth. No longer local. No longer drunk by me.

Well, well, Wells.

John Young, the oldest and longest-serving chairman in the brewing industry, died on Sunday night aged 85, after a long battle against cancer. He had headed the family's brewery in Wandsworth, southwest London, for 44 years.

Mr Young was the great-great-grandson of Charles Allen Young, one of two businessmen who took over the 16th-century Ram Brewery in 1831 and founded Young & Co. John Young's death came in the week that Young's beers are being brewed in Wandsworth for the last time. In May, the company said the Ram Brewery was to be sold for redevelopment, with production transferred to Bedford in a deal with the Bedford brewer, Charles Wells.

Mr Young, who was known as Mr John at the brewery, joined the family business in 1954 after serving as a fighter pilot with the Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War and after a spell in merchant shipping. He became chairman and chief executive of the brewery in 1962 when his father, William Allen Young, retired and reverted to executive chairman in 1999.

John Young was well-known for his support of regional brewing and real ale. In the 1960s he promoted draught beer rather than keg beers favoured by other brewers.

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VB ~= Poorly designed bicycle with two flat tires and no pump.

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